Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Pick over and wash the rice, then soak it in 2 cups of milk for at least 1 hour.
In a bowl, mix the sugar, butter, cinnamon, and mace or nutmeg (or lemon rind).
Cook the rice
Combine the soaked rice and remaining milk in a double boiler.
Boil, stirring often, until the rice absorbs most of the milk.
Remove the rice from heat and stir in the butter, sugar, and salt.
Bake
Beat the yolks of the eggs and then the whites separately.
Mix the beaten yolks with the rice, then fold in the beaten whites.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is golden brown.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Starch that softens in milk and thickens the pudding into a creamy body.
- Milk
- Liquid that the rice absorbs and that sets into a custard with the eggs.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding structure, and the whipped whites add lightness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the golden top.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten whites. Whites hold air when beaten, which lifts the pudding. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it and the pudding bakes denser.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, butter, cinnamon, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, butter, cinnamon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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